Potato and green bean salad . Nicoise, but no tuna. A tease from an email, but couldn’t see the recipe without a subscription. Grrrrr. But I get it. With my home grown La Ratte fingerlings, basil, shallot greens, and thyme. I’m supposed to be limiting carbbs, but make exceptions for my home grown fingerlings.
Soon to be joined by grilled grilled honey chipotle pork tenderloin…maybe. Or sleep. Whichever comes first.
Maybe I’ll add tuna for lunch.
I gladly raise a glass to Sam I am.
Make that a “dirty glass”… 
We had another excellent dinner at Mezza in Westwood, NJ. We shared several appetizers including a very refreshing yellowfin tuna tartar with avocado and chopped mango, crispy Moroccan cigar stuffed with braised short ribs, and our third grilled octopus of the weekend. This version contained baby arugula, fennel, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, and olives, in a mint labne.
For entree’s I had the short ribs special with asparagus, carrots, and crispy shallots in an awesome red wine sauce with celery and carrots. Mrs. P had sautéed branzino with tomatoes, spinach, capers, olives, and fingerling potatoes, in a sherry wine and lemon sauce. It all went great with LePlan Cotes Du Rhone.
Planning on making this too.
Nectarine Olive Oil Cake 0 Reviews
Have the puree made, from my Nectarzee tree, and the parchment cut, but feel like I’m cheating on the hubs. He mostly likes yellow cake with MILK chocolate frosting, and I owe him one for fathers day.
But he had some olive oil cake tat he lied, so I’m hoping for the best.
That looks great Eli. The tuna dish is beautiful!
Thanks Johnny!
OMG - you’re killing me with the resto photos. NJ seems like it must be a food paradise in terms of good restaurants and I’ve also heard that the summer corn and tomatoes grown there are fantastic. I’ve only flown in and out of Newark Airport. Maybe Nj will go on my bucket list.
I want that Moroccan cigar and the succulent looking octopus. LOVE the Moroccan lanterns as well.
A good visit with Mom today.
And while it was definitely not a day for it, I made a big-ass pot of meat sauce to feed the freezer when I got home. Got about a gallon made and will freeze six 2-cup portions.
Had to use some of it, so baked penne was WWFD with several small foil containers to go into the freezer for later baking.
A small salad alongside: some of my lettuce, and thinly sliced cukes and radishes, with a sprinkle of crumbled goat cheese on top and maple-balsamic vinaigrette. And wine. 
Another Lemon Posset for dessert.
Read the post again. I snuck in a wine with dinner. 
The vodka and grapefruit was pre-dinner.
Thank you @Lambchop! There are some very good restaurants in NJ, but NYC and CA probably have better restaurants. The best thing about NJ is all of the great BYO restaurants. We can bring our own wine and save on the huge markup that the restaurants charge (usually triple or quadruple the price of a bottle). I don’t mind spending extra for the food if it is good. That Moroccan cigar was excellent. It came with a homemade tahini dipping sauce. I only got a picture of the last cigar. The octopus was also very tender and I really liked the creative combination.
Below is an even better picture of the Moroccan lamps that I took last month.
https://cdn.hungryonion.org/optimized/3X/0/5/05c264d19cb7b8f43a26c7f9410c5f425985065e_2_700x700.jpeg
Appears that way. Looks good
Thank you!
A week plus of birthday and visitor excesses…
The new momofuku noodle bar was better than expected - whole dover sole was the star of an early birthday meal: perfectly prepared, and a relative bargain.
Dim sum plus at one of my favorite non-Chinatown places - several orders of xlb and a juicy pork chop were part of a delicious spread. My visitors - from HK - were shocked by the delicacy of the dumpling wrappers.
Decadent actual birthday dinner at a beloved casual italian place started family style, and individual mains quickly became common goods as well. Plus a couple of extra dishes “for the table” (but no leftovers, somehow). Artichoke salad blew me away, and the steak was spectacular. Tiramisu. Many bottles of wine. The restaurant did right by me 
Delicious spanish food yet another celebratory night - pulpo a la gallega was my favorite but pan con tomate really hit the spot after the long bread hiatus.
Took my visitors to a new food market in brooklyn on Friday, in lieu of the usual bridge+chinatown trip. Perfect weather, perfect timing (sunset), perfect view, decent food, fun night.
Made a 24h roundtrip to boston for a wedding yesterday. Mediocre food (wolfgang puck), superb dessert (bite size meyer lemon tartlets and valrhona chocolate cakes - many bites were had), and a gorgeous venue.
Tonight was a let-down - it was supposed to be farewell dinner for the visitors, but was thwarted by the aftermath of our other friends’ kid’s birthday party. The food was leftover kid pizza, crappy calzones, and dry birthday cake. Luckily I had picked up little kimchi pancakes and japchae in koreatown (on my way back from penn station, luggage in tow - oh yeah, the whole low carb thing really went to hell starting friday). The “hosts” who had ”already eaten with the kids” decimated much of the ktown haul (can you tell it annoys me when people pretend they’re not going to eat when you’re ordering… and you are stupid or tired or hungry enough to believe them?)
Friends leave tomorrow. I will probably be fasting (or my version thereof 
) for at least a week in recompense.
Your birthday or someone else? Either way, it sounds like a fun week was had! Best wishes to the birthday celebrant!
Thanks! (Mine!)
In that case:
